Ravens defense coordinator Wink Martindale was happy with the win, but it was a reminder why he never laughs watching a football game on TV that turns into a shootout where defense goes out the window.
The 47-42 victory over Cleveland will go down as one of the greatest regular-season games in team history, but it was also the most points Baltimore has ever allowed in a victory. The Ravens hadn’t surrendered that many points in a game in over three years.
“Everybody says, ‘Great game. Great game,'” Martindale said. “Well, it’s not really a great game if you’re a defensive coordinator with all the things that happened in the series of events. But like I said, thankfully, we made enough plays to win the game.”
Renewed optimism surrounds star quarterback Lamar Jackson and a Ravens offense that’s rushed for 525 yards and scored 10 touchdowns over the last two victories, but with that comes concern about a defense that’s now given up 20 or more points after halftime in four of the last eight games. The Ravens still rank fifth in scoring defense (21.0 points per game) and third on third down, but they’ve fallen to ninth in yards per play allowed (5.3) and 21st in yards per carry allowed (4.5). And though the unit is surrendering just 6.5 yards per throw, the pass defense hasn’t come through in losses to Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Tennessee and owns a total of six sacks in the last seven games. It certainly hasn’t helped that Baltimore has the most missed tackles in the NFL, according to Pro Football Reference.
Many playoff contenders would kill for such an overall profile, mind you, but the Ravens rank third in defensive spending for 2020, according to OverTheCap.com. In other words, the standard should be very high for a defense built to complement a run-first, ball-control offense, but the group has fallen to a fairly ordinary 12th in Football Outsiders’ weighted efficiency metric that gives recent games more weight than games early in the season.
Sunday’s meeting with 1-12 Jacksonville isn’t likely to make Martindale lose sleep this week, but potential January meetings with top 10 offenses will require better offerings than what we saw Monday. The key could be as simple as improved health.
Five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Calais Campbell acknowledged earlier this week that he still isn’t back to 100 percent from the calf strain and COVID-19 infection that combined to sideline him for nearly four full games. Nose tackle Brandon Williams also missed nearly three full games with an ankle injury.
The biggest present concern, however, is in the secondary after three cornerbacks — Jimmy Smith, Marcus Peters, and Davontae Harris — were injured in Monday’s game and have yet to practice this week. Tramon Williams is practicing on only a limited basis after missing the last two games, leaving No. 1 cornerback Marlon Humphrey and reserve Anthony Averett as the only active corners not on the injury report this week.
Martindale acknowledged the in-game injuries disrupted his game plan against the Browns, who finished with nearly 500 yards of offense and scored touchdowns on four of their last five drives not counting the final desperation play resulting in a safety.
“You’re sitting there and you’re saying, ‘OK. What can I run?’” said Martindale about a defense that had special-teams veteran Anthony Levine playing slot corner late in the game. “And what it did do is it just made us very vanilla for a lot of reasons. Because as a play-caller, you have to say, ‘OK. I have this guy playing here, so I can’t call this, this, or this. How about we call that?’ It limits you on what you actually can call, and that came back and bit us down there in the red zone.
“It’s one of those things that happens.”
Of course, the Ravens know time is running out to point to excuses after a trying season both on and off the field. Their odds of making the playoffs are extremely high as long as they win the final three games against the Jaguars, the New York Giants, and Cincinnati, three opponents with a combined eight wins in 2020. After that, it becomes a roll of the dice in January for a team seemingly recapturing its mojo at the perfect time after the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak.
Campbell remains confident the Ravens defense is “going to be just fine.”
“We definitely know we could play better on defense,” said Campbell about the win in Cleveland. “We didn’t play our best ball, but that’s OK. We got the ‘W,’ and that’s the No. 1 thing in this business. Never forget that. The only thing that really matters is the win — no matter how you get it.”
Below is Thursday’s full injury report:
BALTIMORE
DID NOT PARTICIPATE: DE Calais Campbell (calf), CB Davontae Harris (ankle), DB Anthony Levine (abdomen), CB Marcus Peters (calf), CB Jimmy Smith (ribs/shoulder), LB Kristian Welch (foot), DE Derek Wolfe (neck/back)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION: CB Tramon Williams (thigh), TE Luke Willson (hip)
FULL PARTICIPATION: DT Broderick Washington (concussion)
JACKSONVILLE
DID NOT PARTICIPATE: CB Sidney Jones (Achilles), TE James O’Shaughnessy (non-injury)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION: TE Tyler Eifert (quadriceps), DE Adam Gotsis (hip), S Josh Jones (shoulder), CB Greg Mabin (hamstring), RB James Robinson (knee)
